Latest mix...

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Well that didn't take long did it? A short time after forming the Visionquest quartet; Shaun Reeves, Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtiss and most well know of all Seth Troxler, bag their first mix for the mighty Fabric. The tracklist looked interesting with several releases coming from their own label and including the well played (to death) Cinelli remix of 'Sound of Violence'. Having seen them close ADE at Trouw and knowing their bohemian take on things in life I was hoping for a random mix full of surprises and some great tracks...

...It was certainly surprised me how boring they managed to make this CD sound...

At first listen it sounded like an amateurish effort comprising of frankly average tracks (the best being the first and last [ironically called 'The song never ends'], the mix is a stop start mash of what I gather is considered to be cool. The monotonous sections of just drums was nearly unbearable and unfortunately featured prolifically, the poppy nature of the middle section saved me from throwing the CD out of the window and cursing Fabric for subjecting me to it...

I cannot understand how 4 artists who are all great individually and I have supported by buying their tracks (no hating individuals here) can come together and create what is a complete non-event. I've said it in the past - a Fabric mix is probably one of the heights of a career in dance music, it is a real chance to create something that will go down in history. People who waste their chances are frankly idiots. I really hope that Lee, Seth, Shaun or Ryan get a chance to do a CD on their own and show what they are capable of because it is a lot more than this...

Saturday, 26 November 2011

I've started a new podcast over on my Mixcloud site called 'Shuffle', celebrating a little blue button on the most widely used audio software ever made. It has transformed the way people listen to music - retrieving memories through dragging up random tracks from the past.

The Shuffle podcast will go through my own library and others' and put together 20 tracks that people may have forgotten, never heard before, hate, love, throw out the window... etc... I hope that people are introduced to music and it has heads turning in surprise!

Week 1:

Bocca Grande - Adlibitum

Only discovered these two guys from Japan recently through their 'Procedere' track that has a remix by Morgan Geist - they're currently preparing an album which will no doubt be piano laden but a real smooth listen...

Jazzanova - Behold these days (Berlin '74)

I always look for Jazzanova when I want to hear something different - and they really are - downtempo, broken beat, hip hop, straddling the lower bpms with style. Having Danny Krivit mix one of their tracks however means they are no small time!

Kurtis Blow - If I ruled the world (original mix)

Always been interested in the electro movement that grew into hip hop later... can you ever see a modern rapper rhyming for 7 minutes however???

R. Dean Taylor - Theres a ghost in my house

The definitive northern soul sound - I remember reading that people were desperate to get their hands on this, they were even flying over to the USA to find it... Then someone found a copy in a newspaper in a petrol station - it had been under their noses all the time...

The Real Weald Tuesday - Still terminally ambivalent over you

Heard this on a Mud podcast, a group from Leicester promoting underground art, music and dancing which makes a real difference to those into real music in the city.

Gilles Peterson - La revolucion del Cuerpo (Auntie Flo remix)

A nice free present from the Huntley & Palmer's guys...

New Order - 586

Not sure why I bought this, sounds great though and real difference from hearing Blue Monday again!

Stone Poneys - Different drum

Yes alright its this one! The one from the advert with the angels in it - the vocal stood out to me so went to find out what it was...

Fourtet & Rothko - Rivers become oceans

One of my friends recently described Fourtet's Fabric mix as 'Ricardo Villalobos playing garage', a recent discovery for me shamefully I'll be buying some more albums to find out more...

Wiley - Cash in my pocket

Cheesy... Haha - I really like this, energetic and the video is great! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6bNKS8QAjM

Tiga - Far from here (Bascombe radio edit)

Nice catchy song this...

Sia - Where I belong

Used to get all my music from HMV - they used to do free cds with a purchase - bit like a promo cd with lots of genres on it - this was a great introduction to other artists such as Sia...

Lindstrom - Little drummer boy (Short edit)

Saw this come up and I thought OH NO!!! Then saw it was the short edit and breathed a sigh of relief - I didn't want to sit through 42 minutes of little drummer boy this far from Xmas...

The Jam - Going underground

Great song, got it off one of those free cds that the newspapers give away at the weekends...

David K - Somewhere in my head (Original mix)

One of my newest house buys, eerie vocal which I'm a sucker for...

Blehorkestar Bakija Bakic - Fizheuer zieheuer (T2 Edit)

No idea how to pronounce this at all but I like it! Quirky with an edit done by the mighty Todd Terje.

Brian Eno & David Byrne - Jezabel spirit

Pulled this out of the charts in the back of the book - Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

El_Txef_A - Rolling edit

Young Spanish guy making waves in the house world - keep an eye on him...

Monday, 21 November 2011

Last Friday saw Jamie 3:26 make the trip over from the USA to London for the first time - and I hope not the last time! Meeting people in The Griffin - nice little pub round the back of Great Eastern street with a cheeky little room upstairs. We popped up where an older guy was DJing - playing some great disco - Slyvester, Salsoul Orchestra etc. After introducing himself as Terry, Terry Farley (to which I nearly fainted) I gabbled a bit of small talk then ran away...

Jamie's event - Spacemachine was actually in Stoke Newington, a nice place but not one I would have thought of for something like this - and a little way out of the centre. I was genuinely surprised however at the venue - really nice little place with a cool basement with nooks and cranies. Both Johnny Hillier and Jamie played great sets with the venue closing a little early at 3.30am.

Thanks to Steve Reed for a lift back into town where I got to CAMP - there was still a queue outside at 4am or so to get into Silence - always a good sign! Zip had just started when I got in at 4.15am and was pumping out the proper house, something I haven't heard in a while. Great night but after getting up 24 hours earlier and a day of work I lost the battle against tiredness!

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Recently I played a bad set and didn't take advantage of an opportunity which really irritated me afterwards - and I'm not above admitting it happened - clearly as I'm stating it here! I was trying to be too clever and fit too much in when I should have been playing what I love - house. Not sure what got me onto the whole mixed genres thing - I do think that any decent DJ worth their salt should be able to play the right song at the right time whatever the genre but recently this has been going overboard...

I think its started with disco edits - not necessarily 4x4 time either, but liking the tune and thinking how can I get this into a set - then it went wider, now I'm regretting that! I'm one to learn from mistakes rather than keep them hanging around so my listening material this week has been focussed on the housier side of things and this will be reflected in my mixes!

Brodinski's mix came through the post the other day and landed upside down... Then it started bouncing around on its own all over the room, or it would have done if it could, this mix has bags of life in it. Clearly influenced by the recent hipster trend but with a personal touch on it this mix is top notch.

Maybe its something I've been unknowingly craving for a while - something to come and slap me round the face, and I don't mean a hand. Recently I think I've fallen into the lethargic trap and its showing in my mixes - I've got Brodinski to thank for waking me up. An artistic person might compare this mix with a steam train - starting off slower huffing and puffing its way to get to a steady rhythm then picking up speak and finally becoming an unstoppable force... But I'd say it got me interested at first and then by 1/2 way through I was hooked and couldn't stop listening, this from someone that I thought played electro - I might start going on a Friday again if they're turning out people like this...

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

For the first time ever the mighty Jamie 3:26 from Chicago is playing in the UK this Friday at The Baby Bathhouse in London, this promises to be a great event with a guarantee that Jamie will bring the heat!

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Nope, not the German duo... There are a shameful lack of DJs out there that are truly diverse, either reluctant to play what they really like because they've become known for a sound or they've got the blinkers on to the rest of the music world.

Thats a bold statement but I reckon its true, I can only think of Damian Lazarus with his legendary Lazpod series playing everything under the sun, Fourtet who is well known for mixing up his production and DJing styles and the Andrew Weatherall/Ivan Smagghe lot. There are so many more out there that must be influenced by older music but just don't show it through their sets, with centuries of music out there to play it is fustrating to hear DJs only play tracks that were released last week despite being mediocre! Arrrrgh!

Another fustration comes out of mix cds, an obvious example is the Fabric line - these are really the pinicle of dance music, being asked to join a very limited group of people, being considered good enough to join the group should be enough cause to sit down and consider the mix VERY carefully... And yet there are some extremely disappointing cds in the series - mostly from the DJs who have only used recent music, to me they've pissed a massive opportunity up the wall. Now i'm not ask them to play the entire Atlantic records back catalogue, but at least consider where you have come from and what has influenced you. This applies to all DJs playing dnb, house, techno, hip hop whatever....

I'd like to see more surprising sets from DJs - hell, stop the music and play the Only Fools And Horses theme tune if you want, anything to make me stop in my tracks and think WTF!!! Maybe not that far... But I can probably link it to risk takers, all these DJs are probably in the cautious brackets when they put money into investments, its probably why I haven't got any gigs coming up (and I'm lazy)...

Heres the link to the Lazpod and if anyone has any more recommendations post them here!

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Hi all, its been a while since the last post! Just got back from Amsterdam for ADE so here is a little report while I remember...

Saturday:

Up at 6am and down to Dover with Roberto from Kai Zen (www.facebook.com/RobertoUK), then over to Amsterdam, the drive wasn't bad at all and the music was full blast all the way! There weren't too many complaints from him when Blondie came on so I reckon hes been hiding a secret passion... Anyway...

Arrived at the hostel - the St Christophers on Warmostraat, well recommended and off to Outland to meet Jerome Krom, Dave Johnnys, Chris Page and Jamie Anderson of Artform records. After a good pizza at Jerome's place - thanks to him! I headed to Toko MC - note to self and anyone else, take a map, I walked for ages until I found it. The Objectivity Vs. Theo Parrish night was superb, I stayed mostly in the 2nd room for Theo, Juju & Jordash, Tom Trago, Awanto 3 and Kyle Hall. Tom and Awanto playing as Alfabet was awesome, no kick drums for the first 5 minutes meant there was something special coming up and it didn't support, harder and faster than Tom's regular stuff it was genuinely surprising and refreshing stuff. Theo followed the live set and after a minute's silence the hip hop started, his whole set was based around presenting the music in a unique way, there was not much mixing going on but that suited the vibe... Excellent all round!

Trouble with a lock meant I couldn't get any fresh clothes at 6am so instead of going to Secretsundaze sleep was in order! Got up to watch the rugby with the NZers so supported France. After discovering there was no reentry to Ostgut Ton at Toko MC the money went on beer instead which lead back to the Artform Records party at The Sun, a superb way to start the night with quality music coming from Roberto, Jamie Anderson, Jerome Krom and Will Long. Then it was onto Trouw for the Visionquest closing with Ben Gomori, walking into Trouw is a real experience, having never been I was extremely impressed, the size was something to behold! Unfortunately Seth's set didn't really match the impressiveness of the venue - it was a bit bland and generic. Fortuntely though I discovered Tom Trago playing downstairs and again the sleazy acid really made my night! We tried to get into Ostgut later on but weren't allowed in which was annoying...

The conference only runs from Weds to Sat but having an extra night in the city couldn't be wasted, so after a few drinks it was onto Supperclub for some guys that were playing soulful and funky house. It was a good relaxing way to end a hectic weekend with a lie down on one of the beds...

Overall a superb weekend and very easy to get to, superb clubs and nights on and excellent options for places to stay meant that we will definitely be going back next year...

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Hi all, apologies I haven't written anything in a while, its been a busy few weeks recently!

I want to talk about afterparties, I was in Amsterdam recently and attended this event:

It was a superb event (the pub crawl wasn't good beforehand but thats another story!), it took us a while to find the venue as we kept on walking past it, Elliot played some great tracks, and I even forgave him for an edit of 'Needin' you'.

The event finished at 5am and there was an afterparty afterwards going on until 11am or so at Cue Bar - after more walking around we finally found this place and preceeded to queue up outside to try and get in. This was probably the most entertaining part of the night -not the music - but actually trying to get in to the venue, it was actually FUN! What I'm getting at is that the afterparty scene seems to be almost too easy to find in London - with venues and parties such as The Egg and Cable hosting Jaded advertising on RA and places like that. You queue up, pay your money and you get in, when you're in it just feels like another party - it could be anytime... I miss the challenge of actually finding and having to work to get into venues - this makes the party much more special to me knowing there are people outside still trying to get in, envying you!

So back to the Amsterdam one, we both still had our Studio 80 bands on and were hauled off to one side of the door and told to wait there whilst some people, probably locals/friends of the bouncer went straight in. It was quite gratifying to see a much longer queue on the other side of the door who didn't have bands on but were holding notes waving them at the bouncer like he was a stripper. After 10 minutes of patient waiting he gave us 'the nod' and we were let in. The wall of heat and sweat in that dark room impervious to the growing sunlight outside felt all the more special...

Friday, 29 July 2011

I've seen Nico Jaar before, in CAMP, and to be honest, hes a challenging person to get into (no pun intended), even more so live... Which is why I was especially surprised to see 2 nights of him playing live at Fabric, looking at the line ups and the times it was no contest which day to go for, the 4am finish winning out over the Wednesday...

So I arrive, at 10.10pm ish and the queue for the very limited on the door tickets is insane, makes me glad I bought mine in advance, I get in and contrary to the line up poster for this night Soul Clap are opening (it was meant to be Gadi Mizrahi), they do their thing nicely mixing up old and new funk eg

At which I went mental - I am actually quite annoyed they played this because this was my secret weapon, never mind... Tracks from Barry White and Jamie Foxx went with it before Gadi finally arrived and took people down into a deeper rabbit hole.

Valentin Stip was on first on the stage at midnight and he did his thing, I was very irritated by the people at the front of the stage almost booing him for starting too slow, you can never rush a live artist. Tried to show my support by clapping a lot (was quite drunk by this time), so not sure if that got through, he did seem very nervous though... Anyway he played some great dubsteppy tracks, very deep and mournful even, but with lots of energy...

Nico Jaar was up next on the larger part of the stage of Rm 1 and this was when I made my escape to the bar, I've seen Jaar before, and I know what to expect. I also know what to expect of a crowd that is not expecting what they are hearing from a Jaar show = crush. He was typically Bohemic in his track selection with the sax player particularly prominent in several tracks, unfortunately so because he wasn't particularly good...

Soul Clap then finished the night off and this is where the review ends because I don't remember much past 2am....

Sunday, 17 July 2011

Friday was taken up by a visit to London and to two different events, the flyers are below...

Lovebox was our first stop at Victoria Park, a place seemingly built specially for events like this... A large grass area where the festivals set up shop in different layouts. Lovebox was well spread out with around 7 stages of varying sizes. The main stage was not operating on Friday, the largest one being the Gaymer's which was host to the bands on the afternoon. Other stages included Rinse, NYC downlow (more on that later), and the Bacardi Get Together.

First up we caught the end of Architecture in Helsinki, an 80's synth band that seem to be all the rage at the moment, some nice catchy tracks that swapped between a female and male lead singer. Wasn't really sure what the drummer was doing because the percussion was highly electronic. Recommended though.

Ed Sheeran was next on stage, and suddenly the crowd expanded massively, mostly late teenagers, attracted by Ed's chart status. He went through a few of his average album tracks to start off with then moved into A-team and Little Lady, during which he brought out his collaborator Mikill Payne. I was very impressed with his acoustic tracks, really showing off his choirboy vocals.

Staying by the Gaymer's stage we then caught Beardyman who was the most incredible act I have ever seen, a beatboxer that uses complex equipment to loop and distort the sounds emanating from his mouth. His set list included loads of well known tracks with a bouncy beat behind all of them. The video below is an example of what goes on during his set:

We then went off in search of other music at the smaller stages, Rinse didn't really catch out attention and it was far too close to the Relentless stage, the sound clashing - and not in a good way. We then spotted the Bacardi stage that was built in the form of castle with the DJs in the centre and what looked like a VIP section around the back. Jaymo and Andy George were playing, nicely warming up for Aeroplane who started at 8pm. We caught a small amount of his funky set before heading off to find out where Flying Lotus was playing.

This is where it started going a bit wrong. The NYC downlow stage was a old dilapidated building with a familiar yellow NY taxi crashed into the top of it. The queue to get in stretched right across the park from the entrance that was guarded by a fence, bottlenecking it. Once we got closer, almost inside there was a sudden crush to get in, we didn't see exactly what happened but it seemed that people were coming from the side as well as coming our way. Security dealt with it well but then closed the entrance which was very annoying - having waited 30 mins in and then being not let in.

Later on that evening we hit Plastic People for Huntley and Palmer's Audio club for Its a Fine Line with Ivan Smagghe and Tim Paris, they were playing all night which meant they could really stretch their audio legs running through a variety of genres ending up with some pretty awesome electro at the end. Couldn't name one tune that they played but thats fine by me!

Plastic People was everything it promised - small and intimate with a great sound system, I will definitely try and get down to both the venue and the night again wherever it may be. The only criticism may be that it finished far early at 3am!

So... In the last few years we've seen the rise of minimal, slo mo house, disco sampled house, 'funky' house, and a form of bass house that straddles the divide between house and dubstep. All of which have either been represented or been repeated from an earlier time. So whats coming next?

Far from me to stick my neck out with some predictions but there do seem to be some trends:

For DJs such as Jamie Jones the progression has been from minimal, dark edged techno through to starting Hot Natured and the funk fuelled explosion that has come with it - as Little White Earbuds has noted:

"Over the last six months that’s meant a deluge of house tracks with full on vocals, not just the snippets that dotted 2010′s output."

Does this indicate a move back towards vocal house do we think? I might think so... The funk has been returning for a while through influential producers such as Sergio Santos, Soul Clap, Lee Curtis etc... I might even go as far to say that we could see a return of the full on 'proper' funky house of the late '90s and early '00s that dominated Defected, Soulfuric and Subliminal's output. These producers and accompanying DJs are in the enviable position of being trend setters and it would be interesting to see older tracks popping up in their sets.

The next trend has been around the bass house/dubstep house/funky house (not to be confused with the 'proper' funky house), I think this may indicate a 4/4 garage comeback, with DJs such as Scuba pushing this kind of sound theres no reason to think it may not happen...

Lastly and perhaps most controversially... Progressive house... interesting this one and its not that clear to me why there is such a stigma attached to the genre, I still dig out my old Digweed or Kleinenberg CDs. It is a type of melodic house that may not be out of place:

Or try Groovemates - Natural Sound on for size - couldn't find it on Youtube...

This next year will be an interesting one as it seems like there has been a decade of innovation in the dance music arena squeezed into a few years that has flown by...

Monday, 4 July 2011

I find London interesting and wonder if any other cities are like this? Over the weekend the flow of people changes by age and type... (There are a few exceptions!)

Fridays are young, urban based and alternative, the city pubs filling up early after people finish work, the sun going down on a long day. Home for a short time before heading out again for Fabric, XOYO or Cable.

Saturdays are more grown up, focussed and dedicated, bars opening up at lunch time for those shopping or those starting early, the music bubbling out from doorways from late evening and the fences keeping the crowds contained only being rattled from past midnight.

Sundays are an all day mixture of ebb and flow of people going home, coming out and going home, with the parties dominated by house and techno with a sunshine slant.

This is a common theme for London weekends - the trainers on a Friday, the moccasins on Saturdays and the sandals on a Sunday...

I've done an edits mix - you can find it at the top of the page, its full of the best edits I could find on Soundcloud and around the place. There are a few other bits thrown in as well for good measure.

I'd like to say thanks to all those guys making these edits, putting them up for free downloads and making DJing a lot more entertaining! Even with the edits some are tricky to mix which makes them fun! I never use the sync button - as you can probably hear lol

Monday, 27 June 2011

Another Fabric CD - they are really the only mixes I buy, maybe I should start reviewing online mixes??

Anyway:

So the Fabric CD series seems to have come a full circle from number 1 with Craig's mix numbering 58. Hes done a couple of collaboration mixes along the way - as Tyrant, but this is him on his own championing his periodical Nothing Special night. The night features lesser known guests that push the boundaries of what Fabric stands for on Saturday nights, often featuring the housier end of dubstep.

I must admit when I started going to Fabric I wasn't keen on Craig's DJing style, it was long, drawn out, with what seemed like minimal energy (no pun intended!), my turning point was seeing him close out a night which really showed me my earlier mistake! That set changed my mind, encompassing a wide range of energy filled house, techno and disco... So it was with anticipation I was waiting for this mix rather than trepidation.

Unfortunately I have a feeling there may be a few puns in reviews involving the name of the mix... Its good.... But its not that good... It really didn't grab me at all as a spectacular mix. Sure there are some great tracks - 3 or 4 of them out of 20... Its not what I hoped it would be and thats the most disappointing thing. The most positive thing I can say is that I am glad that finally someone has put a commercial mix together that makes use of older tracks as well. For that I applaud Richards, its a shame the mix itself isn't what it could have been....

When looking for new music to stand out from the crowd I always find myself going into artists' back catalogue further and further. There is so much more great music in people's back catalogues that gets forgotten about, I can't understand why!

I find its the best way of getting to know new artists by delving into their history... There seems to be so much more concentration on getting the very latest tracks and its almost frowned on to play the tracks that are between 'new' and 'classics'. Its interesting to see how artists have developed over the time as well, moving between genres which prompts surprise from people when you tell them who made it...

I say bring back all those lost tracks and get people remembering and buying them again!

First review from me... Roberto has seen a rapid rise to the top of the tech house/techno game with several high profile releases on Outland, Affin and Artform records. His back catalogue shows depth, with a history of producing drum and bass giving an extra dimension to the acoustic arsenal that emerges from his studio.

Artform, Jamie Anderson's label is the home for Logical Procession and these remixes have been commissioned for the title track of the EP released late last year. The original being an industrial sized monster that worked well on large floors around the world.

First up is Steve Rachmad's remix, a throbbing and wobbling chugger that ramps up in stages heightening the tension adding elements before releasing the full force. Steve has also added two further tracks - two dubs to the release, which does seem a bit excessive, the 'Dub' feels like an after hours tune, a drawn out version of the remix with shimmering effects added in past the 7 minute mark. The 'Triple dub' is a different entity - a more progressive track with stabbing bleeps featuring throughout and an underlying rumble of bass.

Jerome Krom is up next with his remix, using the rolling beats and rhythms to best effect he creates a track that bounces with energy but possibly suffers from ill timed breaks of percussion, a good effort nonetheless. Last but not least is label boss Jamie Anderson with clearly the most different track and my favourite of the 5, lush chords feature from the start swaying in the background giving the track a deeper and more restrained feel, soon though the calmness disappears and a complex, almost ethnic drum pattern emerges. Softer edged pads feature throughout giving this remix package a well rewarded dimension that it needed.

Jamie's mix is the one i'll be playing out of the package regularly, credit goes to Roberto for creating the original from which these remixes have arisen. A neat and tidy package that will no doubt find their way into the hands, cd players and laptops of many of the world's best DJs.

Sunday, 5 June 2011

This cool preview of Amon Tobin's live show 'ISAM' just makes me want to go and buy tickets now, the customised visual show that accompanies the music looks stunning, note I didn't say light show, but visuals, I believe the two are different.

I must admit I have never found the visual aspect of house/dance to be massively important, maybe I just haven't had the right experience. Certainly the light show last weekend at SWH was impressive, but it felt just like a larger version of a nightclub's capabilities. Apart from the odd bizarre film playing on a tv screen or a rotating random image playing on a projector I have seen nothing inspiring.

However, seeing that video and whats capable from visual shows I am willing to open my mind to another dimension of music - after all - who said music has to be purely audio? Can it not be represented and felt by the other senses we have? Touch and visual have the potential to revolutionise how music is presented to an audience. A vibrating room creating an earthquake feeling as the build up shakes towards the drop and bass hammering in would be impressive (and not a little scary!).

I know visuals have been used on bigger shows by people like The Chemical Brothers, Ritchie Hawtin and Fatboy Slim but I'd like to see more live sets put in the thought and maximise how music is played....

Saturday, 4 June 2011

House with soul, something that can be lacking from the generic tech house coming from all corners of the globe... So... Why not combine the two? This mix is an amalgamation of harder edged beats with a tech and even minimal edge with more soulful and deeper tracks interspersed, hopefully creating a mix that is full of energy from the deeper persuasion.

Well this is one event review I never thought i'd be writing, but its happened... I ended up driving to Alexandra Palace after figuring out the location was miles from the centre of London - which meant that getting a train was going to be a difficult mission. That left me sober for this event...

Before the event I wasn't sure what to expect, I certainly wasn't expecting to see a figure of 10,000 people expected to attend the event, I had never been to Alexandra Palace so didn't know how large it was. That left the mind boggling at the amounts of money being thrown about for these guys. We arrived at 8.30 for a 9pm start and it was clear that this was not a normal club night set up - the queue already at that time was LARGE, this was more like a gig/concert. So far all I had seen was a late teen - mid 20s audience, most girls with very high heels on and blonde hair, and the guys with arms the size of my legs...

After a drink at the bar at the entrance we joined the queue which I have to give to AP, was extremely efficient, they were backing people up into 4 lines then releasing one whole line at a time, with 10 people processing the tickets it was extremely smooth and impressive. We went from at the back of a queue to inside the venue in 15 mins max. Walking into the atrium gave a sense of scale to the place - HUGE, the main entrance was beyond that with large temporary bars set up, merchandising and food. It was like a mini indoor festival...

We acquired a few drinks and went through to the main hall, the DJs were on the left handside and the cavernous room just opened up in front of us. It was an extremely impressive venue to hold something like this in, with an extremely high ceiling and plenty of room to curtain off parts of the room off for the toilets, extra bars etc. The opening DJs, who I think were Third Party, were setting the tempo off at aproximately 1000mph, banging the tracks out at 9.30pm, it felt odd but people were going for it. I had to remind myself I wasn't in Fabric. Heres where it gets interesting - it wasn't actually that bad, didn't really know many of the tracks except for a version of Dennis Ferrer's Hey Hey, it didn't sound too disimilar from what I've heard in room 2 of Fabric previously (I know, I was surprised too). This gave me a chance to listen to the sound system and I was very surprised, it was definitely loud enough and even standing right at the back of the room it was a decent volume and could still feel the bass, I would guess that the sound people have had a lot of experience!

The room began to fill up more and more and it was time to test out the facilities - ie toilets, the guys' weren't that bad, portaloos brought in on trailers, but the girls' produced huge queues across the back of the room. Thank god I am not one of them!

Alex Metric came on approximately 10.30 odd and started a mainly electro based set that wasn't interesting at all but everyone else seemed to enjoy it... Then it was time for the main event. We actually missed their appearance but I am guessing from the huge white sheet behind the warm up guys that it dropped to reveal 'them'. They were standing in line on top of a elevated platform that was covered in LEDs with large screens either side making pretty patterns. The cameras also came on and the pictures were sent to large screens displaying happy people's faces...

And the music? Meh... It had energy and their main tracks that had been in the charts - 'One' and the other one I don't know the name of sounded great in there I will admit. But I didn't hear any other real stand out ones. They didn't play the vocal of One thank god. What I found disappointing was two things -

1) Nothing they played was really 'house' it was more like a electro trance genre.
2) They kept on interspersing their tracks with pop hooks - ie from Coldplay 'Clocks', Adele, etc etc...

This kind of indicated to me that their own material was not strong enough to form a set on itself...

We left at around 1.30 to avoid the crush to get out that was no doubt going to happen. One of the things that stuck out to me the whole night was how much everyone seemed to enjoy it - it was clear that although there were a lot of 'good looking' people there, they were there for the music... This is something that has been missing from my trips to more credible nights...

Overall a good experience, and a great one off for the girlfriend!

Venue - 9/10 A great place for a concert, shame about the location compared to central London...

Music - 6/10 (for me) 10/10 (for my gf)

Crowd - 8/10 Everyone up for it, yes I can claim their taste is rubbish, but that would be my opinion...

Friday, 27 May 2011

Strange topic you might think for a blog like that this which seems fairly underground... Well my girlfriend and I are going to see them play this Sunday night at Alexandra Palace. I am genuinely curious about the night - how its going to be programmed and who will be attending...

I am expecting to be surrounded by late teens who have heard 'One' on the radio and think it is the best thing ever, and expecting to hear a fairly commercial warm up set from whoever is doing it - and thats ok. Its not pretending to be pretentious or anything its not. I mean its a shame they probably won't bring Adam Beyer along to do that part but never mind...

I have nothing against the three guys, all of whom have produced some quality records before they joined up, and I have nothing against anyone riding on success - I would do it if I had the chance!

I just really hope the night isn't just boshing out and there are some surprising moments... Maybe i'll even find that energy (see below post!)...

Most of all I hope I can convince the gf to let us go to an afternoon party, after all it would be a shame to waste the time... ;-) Event review on Monday...

I'm going to start with the obvious answer - i've been looking in the wrong place... But when I go shopping on Beatport or some other site I ALWAYS listen to a variety of artists and labels across the genres of house/indie disco (never liked that term on BP). I'm struggling to find anything now, new music wise, that is willing to pick me up, give me a flew slaps around the face and then scream at me...

I think there may be a couple of reasons for this - first the revivalism of classic house that to me always had quite soft beats and a deeper sound. Acid aside it was actually quite slow as well - although that should be no obstacle to energy.

Secondly the rise of ket and minimalism over the last few years has lead to people wandering around the dancefloor in a trance willing to raise their hands at the first chance of a swooshing sound.

Thirdly, the come back of disco samples responsible by Soul Clap, Jamie Jones - and Hot Creations etc, seems to have led to the peak time DJ playing, what would have been a few years ago, fairly deep and early time house. I mean give the warm up guys a chance! If the peak time guys are playing that deep the warm up guys will have to start playing pitched down Minus records where nothing of any note happens at all...

To get the energy that I'm looking for I've had to go to my itunes and start playing my Defected singles, Soma tracks and (older) Buzzin Fly tracks. I've resisted the urge to go back to the Hed Kandi, but thoughts keep on straying there!

Speaking of Defected, does anyone else agree that we seem to be heading down the 'proper' funky house route again? I'm expecting to see the glitter balls being broken out anytime soon... AND they'll be calling it new!!!

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Been meaning to review #1 for a while and #2 dropped onto my doormat yesterday...

#1

Fabric's line of mixes has seen rising popularity since its conception, and thats no surprising thing given the popularity of the club itself. To me their choices are sublime for mixing the CDs, the end results are however another matter, some are destined for the passenger door pocket which means that they get regular plays, others are destined for the CD box in my brothers house...

This mix comes from Agoria, the small man from France with jazzy influences (you'll probably read that on every review so thought i'd mention it here too). With tracks like 'Speechless', 'Baboul Hair Cuttin' and 'Les Violons Ivres' in his production repertoire I was expecting long drawn out mixing verging into techno. I was half right - the long mixing is there but I was blown away by the track choice - it is sublime, from the spaced bliss of SDC - Mercurial Attraction to the frankly banging 'Treehouse' from Lil Tony.

This is a mix that climbs out of your CD player, envelopes you in a world of emotion and depth of colour and retreats leaving you wanting more. Right from the word go there is the throbbing deepness that rises until the beat kicks in and from there is it a lesson in house that many could take note of. Highlights include the vocal of Ella Fitzgerald over Moritz Von Oswald - Ole and Jerome Sydenham & Joe Claussel - Rhythm before it is fully released it all its glory later on.

Put simply this is one of the few CDs I can listen to all the way through - and thats saying something - It will be staying in the passenger door pocket.

4.5/5

#2

With preferences lying in house music, my views on the Fabriclive series are mixed, some are genuinely great - naming the Pearson Sound/DJ Yoda ones for example, they get regular plays from me and are great examples of genre crossing mixes that are entertaining. There have been a couple of stinkers however that won't be gracing my CD player at all...

Jackmaster is a name I have only come across recently and have not heard live or even any mixes so this is a first introduction to me - I am presuming that by getting a CD deal from Fabric he must be fairly established if they are throwing their weight behind him.

Turning over the CD box reveals an interesting tracklisting - my curiousity is piqued - classic house, techno, electro, dubstep (the best kind), and even moody indie rock all one tracklisting? I'm never one to write anyone off early and as the person responsible for some very strange tracklists indeed I was eager to see what he could produce.

After the first listen I felt let down - the way the mix is arranged is disappointing and a bit strange - some of the transitions between tracks are very well thought out - eg from Gieom > Doug Willis, others aren't - eg Sia > CLS. There does not seem to be any structured purpose to the mix - theres no sensation of a journey, more of a sensation of being thrown from from era and genre to another with no real link between each... Some tracks are in for 5+ mins such as The Sun Can't Compare while others are thrown in and discarded before given a chance to shine. It just feels a bit like Jackmaster tried too hard to show what he could do and his depth of knowledge, for a young guy that has captured interest there is plenty of time for him to do that through live sets, it does not have to be captured all on one CD at the start of his career...

Might keep it in the car for my girlfriend to judge but definitely not a classic mix...

There are some DJs out there that are flat out, straight up BORING DJs out there. Its true...

We've all heard DJs that haven't been so good - either too drunk, bad mixing, wearing sunglasses inside, banging away at 7pm to an empty floor etc... But none of these compare to the ultimate sin in my opinion - playing boring music - there really is no excuse.

The main culprit is tech house, with more modern deep house coming in a close second. The most annoying thing is that most of these tracks are great - on their own, and yet DJ X somehow manages to make them sound completely forgettable when doing a set. Whats even more annoying my last experience of someone doing this was at a major night, with a serious face... at 10pm... WTF???

Get loose and have fun! When DJing becomes all about the anally tight blends and playing rhythmic (codeword for monotonous) music then I'm sorry but you've lost what DJing is all about for me...

Heres some tips if you think you fall into this category (and this is from me being a punter on the floor, not my DJ side):

VOCALS - have you forgotten what they are??? They can break up the snoozing coming from the dancefloor within seconds - people prick their ears up and start to smile! Finally something is happening...

What got you into DJing? How did you get to this point? Go back to your old tracks, drag them out and have some fun with them!

Edits - theres plenty of them about all of varying quality, the edits of older disco stuff - with the full vocal/hooks will guarantee a flood of people to the floor

LOOK UP! The previous DJ did his set and left the floor half empty, is there anyone still there 30 minutes into your fantastically rhythmic set? If there isn't then DO SOMETHING about it! Don't just carry on as you are...

Ok, your playing at a night where you know the DJs later on will be playing good stuff later on but might not be sticking to one genre - why do you have to? If you can do it get some funk and soul in there as long as it doesn't sound too out of place...!

I hope people take note of this...

Heres to the next time I hear Sexual Healing in the middle of a house set...

Friday, 13 May 2011

I saw a status update (one of many!) on FB from Spencer Parker - a fine spinner... It went:

"saw Mike Huckaby dj for the first time last night - he was fucking great !!!!got me wondering though,i've always thought it's kinda weird how rarely you see dj's give OTHER dj's props... don't they go out if they are not playing/see other people spin...?"

Now I thought this was interesting coming from Spencer, and can see two conflicting views:

1) Professional DJs are just like anyone else - they treat DJing as work, as the money earner, and who wants to go to work out of hours?

2) Other DJs treat DJing as their idea of fun - their ideal job, I have a feeling that Spencer falls into the latter category and theres nothing wrong with that!

As someone that works 5 days a week in a regular job I can sympathise with the 1) category, but with someone with DJing as a hobby then I can understand 2) as well. Those with families and children may not want to go out anymore than they have to although treating nights out as research projects sounds like my ideal job!

The giving props to other DJs is another matter - it smacks of competitiveness, theres no reason why DJs at the top of their game shouldn't do that - they know that no one can really challenge them. I would understand it lower down the ranks where competitiveness is even more rife, people challenging for fewer and fewer spots.

I'd love to see a mentor scheme come in where the top DJs are given 5-10 DJs to look after and guide through their careers - kind of like Dennis Ferrer and the Martinez Brothers. It is refreshing to see honesty from someone like Spencer and I hope his post inspires DJs to go and see people they haven't seen before. I hope his research projects go well!

Monday, 9 May 2011

Saw this link on RA today and was amazed by the quality of this video - video promos are on the rise as a good way of quickly putting over the vibe and music of the party... Often they make use of dark underlit footage which looks like it was filmed on an iphone - not a professional look! This is how it should be done!

I would for one also like to see more interesting promos rather than the obligatory crowd and fist pumping DJ - I can see that on dancetrippin at better events!!!!!!! Get me interested and intrigued in the aura around your party!